The word order in both Russian and Polish is repeatedly reported to be free, although apparently not any order is permissible. Proceeding from F. de Saussure's assumption that a difference in form always is accompanied by a difference in meaning, and vice-versa, one might expect that different types of word order would differ semantically from each other. In the literature we find only scant and unsystematic reference to a relation between word order and meaning; only for a few seemingly unrelated cases such a relation is given. This dissertation will try to elucidate the relation between form and meaning in word order in Russian and Polish.

In Chapter II the most important syntactical theories are examined. The main criticism is that they do not recognize the unity of the linguistic sign and overemphasize either its formal or semantic aspect. Also, the notion of 'normal' word order is criticized. The author favors van Schooneveld's approach which consists in taking the relation modifier-modified as the point of issue and attributing a certain meaning to the preceding or the following of the modifier. Also, van Schooneveld distinguishes a marked and an unmarked word order, depending on whether the meaning of a certain type of word order is marked or unmarked. In this way the terms 'marked' and 'unmarked' are more meaningful than the terms 'normal' and 'abnormal' as applied to word order.

The Polish translation of the Russian novel 'Anna Karenina' is compared with the original. Differences in word order between the two novels are noted, and a correspondence between word order and meaning is established, proceeding from the assumption that, in a translation, both the original combination of modified and modifier and its translation are identical in meaning while possibly displaying a difference in word order.

In Chapters III-VII the main types of the combination modified-modifier are examined. It is shown that both in Russian and in Polish a modifier following its modified indicates that their combination can be recognized. In Russian the speaker performs the recognition; in Polish the recognition takes place on a more general basis. A modifier preceding its modified indicates that recognition may or may not take place, and forms thus the unmarked member in a binary privative opposition, the marked member being the modifier following its modified.

In Chapters VIII-X the author examines special cases; Chapter XI contains and application of the analysis, used in the preceding only with regard to the relation modified-modifier, to sentence analysis.

Chapter XII contains a conclusion, in which the adequacy of the proposed analysis is stressed once more. Also, the similarity is noted which exists between affixes and words in their relation between order and meaning. The chapter concludes with a proposal for a typology of languages based on the fact that the connection between modified and modifier is established differently for different languages.

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